Tools

eBooks: We Have Them!

This month, the Library’s books display features our eBook databases, and some of the popular, recent editions of titles that can be accessed through our website. eBooks can be located in the following online resources:

AccessEmergency Medicine
AccessMedicine
AccessSurgery
Books@Ovid
MDConsult
NursingConsult
PsychiatryOnline
R2 Digital Library
Stat!Ref
Thieme ElectronicBook Library

These databases have been assembled on the Library’s website at:
http://www.lsuhsc.edu/no/library/resources/guides/EbooksRG.html
Read more >

Diagnosaurus Rawr!

Diagnosaurus is a popular differential diagnostic tool with a catchy name. LSUHSC users have multiple access points to search its content:

Neuroscience Info Framework

There’s a new, free portal to neuroscience information from the NIH called NIF: Neuroscience Information Framework.

NIF is a free, web-based, portal to a wide variety of neuroscience-relevant resources, funded by the National Institutes of Health. We have an extensive registry of over 2500 resources along with a custom web index and literature archive. Through the NIF Data Federation, we provide a direct query of over 40 databases, with new ones being added regularly.

Type a key word on the homepage to see find information about NIH grants, projects, neuroscience tools, and biomedical literature. A search for LSU gives search results from a variety of sources, from grants to clinical trials, even gene info. Other tabs link to web resources and literature from Pubmed.

The NIF registry is a useful way to locate neuroscience research resources from a network curated by the NIH. The Registry could be a starting point to find jobs, mentoring and educational opportunities in the neurosciences.

You can also recommend neuroscience resources such as materials, training, software, funding, services, data, jobs or people.

The Librarian’s Review:The search results screen can seem a little overwhelming, but clicking on the arrow by ‘log in preferences’ will make the search box disappear. If you’re used to using Excel, the NIF search result interface is similar. Categories can be sorted or removed to customize the view, and results can be exported, which is useful if you want to put them into Refworks or Endnote. Abstracts appear if you hover your mouse too long over the field, which can get annoying when trying to scan results.

Overall, NIF is a useful portal, acting as a clearinghouse for a number of different to resources, tools, grants and programs in neuroscience. The interface is fairly simple to use, though first time users might get overwhelmed by the amount of information available. It’s a good attempt to make a useful, curated portal for a specialty. Would like to see more of this.

NIF: Neuroscience Information Framework
http://www.neuinfo.org/
also available under our online resources

Fast Help for E-Resources

The LSUHSC Libraries have access to almost 200 databases so how do you decide which one to start searching in? The Reference Librarians have created 6 E-Resources at a Glance sheets for each of the school of LSUHSC.
Electronic Resources at a Glance: Allied Health
Electronic Resources at a Glance: Dentistry
Electronic Resources at a Glance: Graduate Studies
Electronic Resources at a Glance: Medicine
Electronic Resources at a Glance: Nursing
Electronic Resources at a Glance: Public Health
Let us know what you think.

Aerospace Medicine & History

July is full of space anniversaries, from the moon landing (July 15th) to the establishment of Cape Canaveral (July 24th), but what did this mean for medicine?

To understand the history of a medical subject, I sometimes check out its history in MeSH. The current subject is Aerospace Medicine and has been since 1980, but it was Aviation Medicine from 1966-74 and Space Flight from 1975-79. If a comprehensive historical search is required, it is always good to check out the Online & History Notes in MeSH.

Check out this article by SE Parazynski, a former astronaut and a physician, entitled “From model rockets to spacewalks: an astronaut physician’s journey and the science of the United States’ space program.” This article is freely available to the general public through PubMed Central.

This is Your Brain on Twitter

Twitter* is all the rage at the moment. From Oprah signing on to Ashton Kutcher & CNN competing for the most followers, but what are the implications for users at a health sciences center?

One of our fellow medical librarians (PF Anderson at the University of Michigan) has a great slidshare presentation on “Twitter in Health & Healthcare” which demonstrates the various uses of twitter for both professionals and patients.

Twitter is even being used as a form of assistive technology for brain injured adults. The University of Wisconsin Biomedical Engineering Department are developing software that allows the use of a “brain-computer interface” which allows the direct input of thoughts into Twitter.

I am HS_Librarian on Twitter.

*Twitter is a microblogging website where users can disseminate information in 140 character posts.

Medical Words

Medlineplus.gov, the National Library of Medicine‘s consumer health information website, has created a tutorial on medical terms to assist consumers in understanding and using medical language.

Historic Medical Photo Collection

The National Museum of Health and Medicine has been digitizing many of its historic photos. While some of these are available in their online galleries, others are located on a Flickr page.

Check out this food safety poster from World War II.

Flickr is an online photo management tool. If you are having difficulty viewing this image, try switching to the firefox browser. Flickr images do not work with IE on campus.

Searching for a Clinical Trial

Clinicaltrials.gov offers a searchable database of clinical trials that are occuring world wide; it is provided by the National Institutes of Health and the National Library of Medicine. As of today, 38,757 trials are taking place in the United States and 2,816 of those are in Louisiana according to their searchable map.

State Report Cards

It’s that time of year again, when various agencies grade the states on a variety of social issues:

Use 2.0 to keep up!

Having trouble keeping up with those journals that are piling up? Don?óÔé¼Ôäót remember where those email reports are about your committee work? Well?óÔé¼?ª..

You can set up your personal Google Reader which accepts RSS feeds to monitor your favorite journals, keep track of your own publications and get notified when someone cites you, and stay up to date with society/association announcements, and your favorite blogs.

Don?óÔé¼Ôäót know what I just said? You should contact a reference librarian reference@lsuhsc.edu immediately. She will assist you in using these 2.0 technologies. This technology will simplify your life. You can wow your kids at the same time! The drawback? Once you get the hang of 2.0 technologies it will be 3.0 technologies!

Bookmark Changes

As you may remember the Library converted its links to a Delicious Account back in August. In October, we posted about the social bookmarking phenomenon. The Delicious Links continue their dyamic growth with over a dozen new sites added in the last month. My particular favorite? The Virtual Stethoscope Project. from McGill University.

Auscultation Alley

Auscultation is the technical term for listening to the internal sounds of the body, usually using a stethoscope. The links below offer a number of websites that contain heart, lung, and breathing sounds.

Auscultation Assistant
http://www.med.ucla.edu/wilkes/inex.htm

Cardiac Examination / Heart Sounds
http://www.blaufuss.org/tutonline.html#

CardiologySite.com
http://www.cardiologysite.com/index.html

Heart Sounds and Murmurs
http://www.texasheartinstitute.org/Education/CME/explore/events/eventdetail_5469.cfm

Heart Sounds and Murmurs
http://depts.washington.edu/physdx/heart/index.html

We’ve also indexed these on our links page.

Staking our Technorati claim

Technorati Profile

Move along, just trying to get some web statistics stuff set up here.

MD Networks

What online tools do medical professionals use to network with their peers? Check out these sites, compiled by the MLA’s EMTS section:

Grand Rounds – http://frommedskool.com/grand-rounds/
A blog ?óÔé¼?ôcarnival?óÔé¼?Ø which showcases the weekly best of the medical blogosphere. It is hosted by a different medical blogger each week.

Applequack.com ?óÔé¼ÔÇ£ http://applequack.com/
A blog written by a doctor in Australia, it contains reviews of medical software for the Mac, and hacks for doctors, biomedical researchers and students.

Tech Medicine ?óÔé¼ÔÇ£ http://www.healthline.com/blogs/medical_devices/
A blog written by practicing nephrologist and medical school faculty member, he is interested in medicine and technology

The Efficient MD blog – http://efficientmd.blogspot.com/
Reviews of innovations, “life hacks,” gadgets, techniques, and useful tools designed to improve the professional lives of physicians

The Efficient MD Wiki – http://wiki.efficientmd.com/
Designed to help healthcare professional and medical students discover clinical pearls and useful resources

Sermo ?óÔé¼ÔÇ£ http://www.sermo.com
Social networking for doctors, the current largest, only physicians can join

DoctorNetworking.com – http://doctornetworking.com/
Professional networking site for physicians, only for physicians – must include your state license number as part of registration.

Docsboard.com – http://www.docsboard.com/
Non-commercial physician discussion forum aimed at practicing physicians and residents in training. The site is intended to help physicians exchange ideas and discuss matters concerning the profession. Limited access to just physicians.

Doctors and Med Students on Twitter – http://feeds.feedburner.com/doctorsontwitter
An RSS feed of Twitter feeds mashed together. Twitter is a ‘microblogging’ service similar to text messaging, where users post updates to the question ‘What are you doing’ in 160 characters or less.

What’s your favorite?